Comets, Raiders win team championships at Ballard Classic

Thursday

HUXLEY – The North Polk and Collins-Maxwell-Baxter boys’ track teams had productive outings at the Ballard Classic boys’ track meet April 16 in Huxley.

Both schools won the team championship of their respective classes. North Polk claimed the Class A title and CMB won Class B.

In Class A North Polk totaled 115 points to beat Gilbert by 10 points for first out of seven teams. Nevada was third with a score of 93 and Ballard came in fourth with 85 points.

North Polk won three events and took second in four more.

Nathaniel Long had a strong individual day to key North Polk’s team victory. Long claimed the 800-meter run championship, taking second in the open 400, anchoring the Comet runner-up 4 X 400 relay team and finishing fourth in the 200.

In the 800 Long crossed the finish line in two minutes, 3.62 seconds to easily beat the runner-up time of 2:08.02 by Gilbert’s Thomas Pollard. Long just missed taking first in the 400 as he clocked in at :52.76 to finish a hair behind the :52.20 run by Nevada’s Colynn Black.

In the 4 X 400, Brandon Albaugh, Austin Williams and Reed Smith ran the first three legs for North Polk. The Comet team ended up running a 3:37.84 to trail only the 3:36.03 run by Creston.

Long ran a :24.05 in the 200. Teammate Matt Cox was second with a :23.56 and Gilbert’s Andre Rathje won in :22.95.

North Polk also won the 4 X 200 and shuttle hurdle events.

Cox anchored the 4 X 200 and Nick Kibby, Smith and Williams ran the first three legs. the Comets finished in 1:36.71 to easily beat Nevada’s 1:38.62 for the gold.

Jordan Nathan, Zach Brecht, Williams and Russell Greene teamed up to run a 1:03.84 in the shuttle hurdle. Ballard’s team of Michael Wulfekuhle, Jacob Bernholtz, Mason Edwards and Caleb Schafbuch was second in 1:04.15.

Cox, Greene and Paul Robidoux each won a silver medal individually for North Polk. Cox earned his in the 200, Greene clocked in at :15.35 in the 110 high hurdles and Robidoux finished the 3,200 in 10:55.20.

Nathan was third in the 110 highs at :16.18 and Ryley Sandberg won a bronze in the 1,600 after completing the race in 4:50.64.

Luke Kohut-Jackson picked up Ballard’s lone gold medal in the 3,200. Kohut-Jackson easily won the race, clocking in at 10:35.37.

In addition to helping Ballard take second in the shuttle hurdle, Schafbuch was second in the long jump and third in the high jump in Class A. He peaked with a jump of 19 feet even in the long jump and cleared 5-8 in the high jump.

Ballard added a silver medal in the 4 X 800 as Noah Wheeler, Kobe Schulze, Derek Wright and Michael Wuestenberg combined to run a time of 8:52.00 to come in behind only the 8:45.15 run by Creston.

Tyson Pritchard, Kirklyn Kohrt, Wulfekuhle and Isaiah Johnson joined forces to run a silver-medal time of :47.01 in the 4 X 100 for Ballard. Nevada won in :45.58 and ADM was just behind Ballard in third with a :47.11.

Wuestenberg added an individual bronze medal in the 800 after crossing the finish line in 2:08.31.

Field events played a big part in CMB winning the Class B championship. The Raiders finished with a score of 122.5 to easily beat Earlham’s runner-up score of 91 for first among the seven competing teams.

In field events CMB took first and third in both the shot put and discus, first and sixth in the long jump and sixth in the high jump.

Zach Samson won both the shot and discus for CMB with respective throws of 54-9.5 and 147-6. Woodward-Granger’s Andrew McCune was second in both events as he had a throw of 49-9 in the shot and 136-6 in the discus.

Patrick Girard took third in the shot for CMB after peaking at 45-11. Clayton Weltha won the bronze in the discus for the Raiders with a throw of 129-7.

Bryce Kemp won the long jump for CMB after topping out at 19-11 to edge South Hamilton’s Devin Howard by two inches for the title. Brady Stover came in sixth with a jump right at 18 feet.

Zach Huffaker cleared the bar at 5-4 in the high jump to place sixth.

On the track, Kemp and Austin Moorman won individual gold medals in the 110 highs and 800 respectively.

Kemp completed the 110 highs in :14.56 to edge Earlham’s Zach Rice’s time of :14.67 for first in Class B. Moorman finished the 800 in 2:10.34 to comfortably outlast the 2:14.09 run by Woodward-Granger’s Dylan Garland for first in the event.

Kemp also took third in the 100 and 200 with respective times of :11.15 and :23.73.

Aaron Ward and Mark Deutsch stood out in distance running events and Jordan Coughenour did well in both the 400 low hurdles and open 400 for the Raiders.

In the Class B 3,200, Ward and Deutsch were second and third with respective times of 10:44.98 and 10:45.82. BCLUW’s Cole Silver won in 10:29.08.

Ward and Deutsch placed third and sixth respectively in the 1,600. Ward ran a 4:59.12 and Deutsch finished in 5:11.24.

In the 400 low hurdles, Coughenour clocked in at :59.22 to trail only the :57.27 by South Hamilton’s Tristin Twedt and the :58.18 by Madrid’s Owen Gibbons.

CMB added a bronze medal in a relay event. The Raider 4 X 200 team of Gabe Schabillion, Zach Hartgers, Samson and Huffaker ran a 1:39.31 to come in behind the 1:35.29 by Earlham and 1:36.65 by Woodward-Granger.

CMB also finished fourth in both the 4 X 800 and 4 X 400 events, fifth in the shuttle hurdle and sixth in the medley and 4 X 100.